FG arraigns Binance, executives for tax fraud

The Federal Government, on Thursday, April 4, arraigned cryptocurrency firm, Binance Holdings Limited and its two executives, Tigran Gambaryan and fleeing Nadeem Anjarwalla, before Justice Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court, Abuja, for alleged tax fraud.

While only Gambaryan was in court, his co-accused, Anjarwalla, who had been in detention alongside Gambaryan, was said to have escaped from lawful custody from the Abuja guest house where he and his colleague were detained.

Politics Now earlier reported that the Federal Government, through the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), had filed a five-count charge of money laundering and operating specialised businesses in Nigeria without a licence.

The suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CR/115/2024, filed at the Federal High Court in Abuja, accused Binance of facilitating customer tax evasion.

The charges include non-payment of Value Added Tax (VAT), failure to file tax returns, non-payment of Company Income Tax (CIT), and complicity in aiding customers to evade taxes through its platform.

While the Government alleged that Binance’s operations violated established tax regulations in Nigeria, it claimed that the cryptocurrency platform did not register with the FIRS as required by law.

The Government also accused Binance of failure to register with FIRS for tax purposes and contravening existing tax regulations within the country.

One of the counts in the lawsuit pertains to Binance’s alleged failure to collect and remit various categories of taxes to the federation as stipulated by Section 40 of the FIRS Establishment Act 2007, as amended.